aspire-x1200

Who says home theater PCs have to be expensive? Sometimes all you need is a PC that's small enough to look good next to your TV, cable box, and video game console, and powerful enough to handle HD video. It looks like the Acer Aspire X1200 might just fit the bill. And this tiny (10.6" x 4" x 14.4") computer has a starting price of just $450.

The low end model is available today and packs an AMD Athlon X2 dual core CPU, NVIDIA GeForce 8200 graphics, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, a 16x DVD burner, a 14-in-1 card reader, and Windows Vista Home Premium. For a few bucks more you can get a faster CPU.

Or if you're willing to wait until July 13th you can get a $700 model with a 500GB hard drive and a 22-inch "widescreen LCD display." There's no word on what the resolution for that display will be, but $700 is a pretty decent price for a home theater PC packing Windows Media Center functionality as well as the bundled CyberLnk PowerDVD and Arcade Live software. Of course, you'll need to pony up some cash for a TV tuner if you want to watch or record live TV.